Life of Statesman and Industrialist Sir James Sivewright of South Africa, 1848-1916: Builder of Railways, Telegraphs and Waterworks

Author:

Wilburn, Kenneth E.

Year:

2010

Pages:

636

ISBN:

0-7734-3673-1978-0-7734-3673-2

Price:

339.95

This work examines the imperial and republican consequences of the Industrial Revolution and global capitalism on South Africa through the eyes of Sir James Sivewright, advanced telegraphist, adept politician, and successful entrepreneur. This book contains thirteen black and white photographs and ten color photographs.

Reviews

"James Sivewright is badly in need of historical rehabilitation. This thorough biography, by the one person who has seen all of the Sivewright papers and the relevant archives, ought to achieve that posthumous rehabilitation – if anyone can accomplish such a difficult task.” – Prof. Robert I. Rotberg, Harvard University

“[This] unique, singular biography of James Sivewright adds dimensions to understanding late nineteenth-century South African history that will have to be taken into account in future histories in the region.” – Prof. Jack Parson, College of Charleston

“. . . brings new insights to an important part of South African historiography.” – Prof. Aran S. MacKinnon, University of West Georgia

Table of Contents

Abbreviations
List of Maps
List of IllustrationsForeword: Robert Rotberg
PrefaceAcknowledgementsPart One: Early Life, Telegraphy, and the Anglo-Zulu War 1848-1885
Chapter 1: Early Life and South African Telegraphs, 1848-1878
South Africa
The Merrimans and SivewrightChapter 2: Telegraphy and the Origins of the Anglo-ZuluWar, 1878-1879 Traveling Through the Disputed Territory Sivewright and the UltimatumChapter 3: Sivewright and the Anglo-Zulu War, 1878-1879Isandlwana Sivewright, Bishop John Colenso and the Zulus:
The Durnford Controversy and the Unburied DeadLife in Pietermaritzburg and Durban, January – July 1879Field Telegraphy and EkoweTransvaal Telegraphs
Sivewright and South African TelegraphySivewright and the End of the Anglo-Zulu War
Chapter 4: Trans-Africanand Ocean Telegraphy, 1877-1885Sivewright and Submarine Cable Routes
The Cable has LandedThe Politics of South African TelegraphyThe Silvertown Consortium and the Submarine Cable
Part Two: The Imperialist Afrikander, 1885-1894
Chapter 5: Early CapePolitics and Entrepreneurship on the
Witwatersrand, 1885-1894
The Afrikaner BondSivewright and EntrepreneurshipChapter 6: Ministry of All the Talents: Political Union of the Cape Colony, 1890-1892The Formation of the First Rhodes Ministry
African RightsChapter 7: The Sivewright Agreement: Railway Imperialism
Confronts Railway Republicanism, 1891-1892The Sivewright AgreementThe Sivewright Agreement and NatalFlotation of the Sivewright AgreementThe Kimberley ExhibitionKnighthoodChapter 8: Abroad: The Logan Contract, Delagoa Bay and the South AfricanStudents Union, 1892-1893
Sivewright, the McMurdo Concession and
the Delagoa Bay Railway, 1893
Sivewright and the South African Students Union
Chapter 9: In Country: The Logan Contract and the Ministry of
All the Talents, 1893-1895
The Logan Contract in ParliamentThe Select Committee on the Logan Contract
Historiography of the Logan ContractChapter 10: Profits, Promises and Glen Grey, 1893-1895
Delagoa Bay
Sivewright in Johannesburg, 1893-1896
The Sivewright Agreement and CGRThe Election Campaign of 1893-1894The Sivewright Agreement and The Solemn Promise
Sivewright and Glen GreyPhotographs and Vanity Fair Caricatures Following PagePart Three: Laird of Lourensford, 1895-1898Chapter 11: The Drifts Crisis and the Jameson Raid, 1895-1896 PreludeCalm before the Storm
The Charter and the Jameson RaidSivewright and the PremiershipSivewright, the Solemn Promise and CGR, 1896-1898
Sivewright’s South African Business Interests, 1896-1898 CuishThe Peace Motion and the Precarious Sprigg Ministry
Sivewright, Poor Whites and Africans, 1896-1898
Chapter 12: The Imperialist Afrikander, the Cape, and
the Transvaal, 1898
The Progressives
The Submarine Cable
Africans and the Sprigg Ministry
Redistribution and the Fall of the Sprigg Ministry
The Campaign of 1898Part Four: Resident Proprietor of Tulliallan, 1899-1916
Chapter 13: South Africa from Great Britain, 1899-1916Sivewright’s EirenicomThe Sivewright Ambulance
Cold Storage and the Second Anglo-Boer War
Chapter 14: Sivewright’s Redemptive Work in Ecuador, 1901-1916
Archer Harman and the G&Q Railway Company
The Sivewright LoanChapter 15: The Eirenicom Arrives at the Terminus, 1905-1916
Prisoner of WarThe Contested WillConclusionAppendix A: The Sivewright Agreement (AbridgedThe Loan (Abridged)Working and Through Traffic Conditions (Abridged)
The Supplementary Agreement (Abridged)
Appendix B: The Logan Contract
Appendix C: British and US Currencies, 1878-1916
Appendix D: Vanity Fair CommentariesJames Sivewright, 1 June 1893
Bishop John Colenso, 28 November 1874
Cetchswayo, 26 August 1882
Lord Chelmsford, 3 September 1881Paul Kruger, 8 March 1900Cecil Rhodes, 28 March 1891Barney Barnato, 14 February 1895John Gordon Sprigg, 18 September 1897
Select Bibliography
Index